1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to carpet products capable of being formed without need to use of heat into contoured shapes. More particularly, it concerns such products having a pressure-sensitive adhesive surface protected by a release sheet what can be peeled off allowing the shaped carpet assembly to be installed on the surface for which it has been contoured, i.e., so-called peel-and-stick carpet products.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Large quantities of carpeting are used for other purposes than for covering floors or stairs in buildings. By way of example, much carpeting material is used by the automobile industry to cover various interior surfaces of cars and trucks to provide soundproofing; to cover door panels or other exposed, unfinished areas; to line car trunks; etc.
In order to reduce time consuming tasks of fitting, cutting and seaming to effect such installations of carpeting in vehicle interiors, composite carpet products have been developed that can be precut to size and preformed, i.e., contoured, as one-piece, form-fitting units that can be shipped directly to auto assembly plants and installed easily in cars, e.g., see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,673,034 and 4,230,755.
In addition to pre-cutting and pre-shaping, the pre-application of pressure-sensitive adhesive to the back side of such carpet products furher assists in the rapid installation of the product to the surface for which they have ben contoured. To protect such backing adhesives, a release sheet (liner) is applied over them which can be peeled off just before the carpet product is applied to the substrate to be covered. Hence, such articles of manufacture are referred to in the trade as "peel-and-stick" and such term is used herein as a means for generically identifying this class of articles.
Another innovation for these carpet articles is the incorporation of a scrim (a fabric or carrier) within the back adhesive layer to impart longitudinal dimensional stability to the product. This stability mitigates carpet stretching when the release sheet is removed.
While these various innovations have been developed for improvement of peel-and-stick carpet assemblies, problems still exist relative to their constructions, installation, etc. For example, a typical method of preshaping the carpet assemblies is to apply heat thereto and then press or mold the assembly into the desired shape. Unfortunately, components of such prior products exhibit an elasticity or hysteresis which, with the passage of time, causes the preformed item to creep back to its original, flat shape. Also, where heat is required to shape or reshape the carpet product, it can be satisfactorily reshaped right at the time of installation on the substrate where this may be necessary to compensate for slight variations in the substrate contour from the standard pattern.